Thread: Dear God please help me!

Originally Posted by christie

I'm hoping to learn linux, the problem is i don't know which platform to use, I've asked several people and it's like asking the time( you never get the same answer.) So I'm completly lost in which to use, I'm a total noob at linux and i would appreciate some advice as which is a good one to use. I'm currently using xp on my car pc but i want something i've programmed myself( complition time next year hopefully)

Fedora Core 6 is a great place for a Linux newbie to start. And it will scale well to when you do know what you are doing. I've heard good stuff about Ubuntu (and variants) as well.

If anyone tells you Gentoo tell them to put down the crack pipe. I admin a large number of production Gentoo servers at a commercial site... just a little insight to this. Gentoo is not a newbie distro unless you are prepared to make a big time commitment and/or have prior real OS experience.

HTH

Thanks reece146 I've installed fedora core 6 on a spare pc. sorry to be a spaz but which language would be best to programme in c++ python etc? obviosly once i've learnt this i could build something quite crap and smash my skull in frustation

Originally Posted by christie

Thanks reece146 I've installed fedora core 6 on a spare pc. sorry to be a spaz but which language would be best to programme in c++ python etc? obviosly once i've learnt this i could build something quite crap and smash my skull in frustation

Are you a novice programmer? If so I would pick something with strong variable typing and minimal use of pointers, etc.

I'd stay away from C/C++ for now. Python would be a good place to start I believe since it is the current "hot" language for "getting stuff done".

Once you are coding decent stuff then start looking hard at C. From there everyting will fall into line.

If you stick with Linux make sure you take the time to learn bash as well. A lot of simple tasks can be accomplished with bash and gnu utils. Also, it will make you a more well rounded UNIX user. I always chuckle when I meet "senior programmers" that are lost without an IDE.

HTH

I've done some very basic python about 2 years ago, I'll pick up the book and start again, I'll also look at bash. Once again thanks for the advice

my 2.333... (repeating of course) cents:

whatever you do, don't give up! whatever you need to get done, you can find a way. You can find tons of stuff by just using google to help solve your problems. You'll almost never be the first one with that specific problem. I started with mandriva linux 10 months ago, moved to fedora core 5 and I ended up with ubuntu as my main distro of choice. I'm almost totally moved away from the windows world (3 of 4 computers running pure Linux). You'll find your cup of tea sure enough... as long as you have the undying spirit and determination to finally use a real operating system.

Originally Posted by kev000

my 2.333... (repeating of course) cents:

whatever you do, don't give up! whatever you need to get done, you can find a way. You can find tons of stuff by just using google to help solve your problems. You'll almost never be the first one with that specific problem. I started with mandriva linux 10 months ago, moved to fedora core 5 and I ended up with ubuntu as my main distro of choice. I'm almost totally moved away from the windows world (3 of 4 computers running pure Linux). You'll find your cup of tea sure enough... as long as you have the undying spirit and determination to finally use a real operating system.

And from this post, I know that kev000 plays World of Warcraft... or at least knows quite a bit about it.

Not sure if it's sadder he said it, or that I caught it.
-dan

Originally Posted by WoLLy

And from this post, I know that kev000 plays World of Warcraft... or at least knows quite a bit about it.

Not sure if it's sadder he said it, or that I caught it.
-dan

? ?

Go do a search for Leeroy Jenkins

i'm not god but i'll try to help:

to start with linux i'd use OpenSuSE (because i never really used fedora (i've used red hat linux 5.0 but that's not really comparable)) but i'm sure fedora is just as good.

if you want something more extensible (upgrades) use an ubuntu system it has the best packaging system and all packages in a central repository -> just install it from a catalogue and enjoy not being in package-dependency-hell (is it still that bad on rpm systems?)

reece:
gentoo on servers? not a really good server distro in my opinion.. except for the stack protector compile option